Highlights

I had a great privilege to travel to sunny Slovenia last month to take part in “EU Macroregional Strategies Conference on Media and Communication – Know Thy Neighbour”. The event was about exchanging experiences, learning from good practices and discussing how to improve the visibility of the EU macro-regional strategies (MRS). Participants were representatives of media, journalists, communication experts, academia and interested stakeholders. Can you imagine that this was the first time that communication people from all four macro-regional strategies met to discuss their work!

ChemSAR project is an EUSBSR Flagship aiming to no less than save human lives. Human lives will be saved by improving the efficiency of the rescue operations at sea. The rescue operations will become more effective with the help of standard operational procedures which the project creates, especially to be used in hazardous and noxious substances incidents.

A digital Flagship of Policy Area Innovation, project DIGINNO (Digital Innovation Network), was launched on 5 September in Tallinn. DIGINNO’s objective is to advance the digital economy and to speed up the process of moving towards the Baltic Sea region single digital market. The project aims to increase the capacity of policymakers, industry associations and industrial SMEs to enable faster and more efficient uptake of digital solutions both in public and private sector.

Healthy Population – Prosperous Region A healthy population is a critical factor behind the sustainable economic development of enterprises and societies. Therefore, improvement of health throughout the Baltic Sea region is important for the prosperity of the region.

On 14th June 2017, on the second day of the 8th Annual Forum of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region and during a Plenary Session on Strategic Cooperation on Sustainable Blue Growth in the Baltic Sea Region, the Baltic Sea Clean Maritime Awards of the Baltic Sea Forum were given out. The projects and actions awarded are strongly in line with the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region.